Climate change may threaten these bamboo-eating lemurs

Madagascar’s history holds warning for the already critically endangered species

OTHER BAMBOO SPECIALIST A greater bamboo lemur, the only mammal besides the giant panda to depend on nutrient-poor, yellowing bamboo stems during dry seasons (left), could suffer more as the climate changes. More nutritious, tender bamboo (right) can feed even a baby lemur.

All: Jukka Jernvall

The only lemurs so dependent on bamboo that they gnaw on hardened, nutrient-poor stems during the dry season might dwindle away as those seasons grow longer.

Other animals, even another lemur species, will eat lots of bamboo shoots and leaves. But the greater bamboo lemur is the only mammal besides the giant panda that sticks with bamboo during the dry season. That’s when the plants stop sprouting and offer only

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